california, but tuesday made marijuana iegal and that's good for the toes, doritos, tostitos. >> great prediction, lousy stock. >> brenda: neil cavuto is next. >> neil: well, talk about a snow j as victims of super storm sandy and a winter white out are left to fend for themselves. i'm neil cavuto. as a winter storm was blowing into the northeast, fema was shutting down, closing relief nters throughout new york city, a sign hanging on an office door infuriating victims ever sandy who say they're the ones hung out to dry. and fema says it made the move because of conditions were unsaffe. no power, no heat, no water, no help, no way. now some lawmakers want billions more for fema? some here on the panel to say

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no way. ben stein, charles payne, gerri willis along with adam lashinsky, and saying give them 15 billion more. >> 14 billion more, but not to fema, it's the wrong place to put it. it's a mess and owes 18 billion dollars from hurricane katrina. i mean, this is an agency that cannot manage itself. the inspector general wrote a long report last year saying the agency is mismanaged, it doesn't have systems in place that can talk to states. they can't talk to each other, they don't have the right computers in place and let me tell you, they are maning more disasters all the time. president obama has called more disasters than any other president in the last 20 years. fema is not the organization. give it to the local states, they're the people who can make these decisions and spend the money wisely. >> neil: i don't dismiss the role of a federal presence

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disasters like these, but when bottled water can't arrive to a site and folks supposed to weather the storm close, at antithesis of what you're supposed to adopt and send e-mails to people who don't have powers and texts to phone to people who don't have phone service, you can't make this stuff up. >> that's the problem with bureaucracy and not letting states handle this. if anybody can more money, go out to staten island right now. i have friends out there. that place is devastated. >> it's tragic that the president hasn't gone out there yet. staten island has been destroyed. >> neil: mayor bloomberg-- >> he wanted to have the marathon, but i am telling you that this is a really bad place, go to staten island right now. there are schools that are used as morgues and the bodies are piling up. >> it doesn't feel like america, when people go

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without power and hot water, this should be fixed and people said to me, what do you want fema to do, what should they have done. >> pre-staged the water, pre-staged generators, and there was all kinds of warnings that this storm w happening, we knew it was coming. >> this was the most telegraphed natural disaster we've in a long time. >> nl: i will stay this and sometimes tasks can overwhelming and not putting the finger on fema. but ben stein the most loathsome of this process, covering from the beginning, the various local government officials, republican and democrat, bureaucrats, patting themselves on the back, every press conference would begin i'd like to thank the honorable et cetera, et cetera, and get into it. but argue before you pat yourself on the back you might take note of the constituents you serve who would sooner kick you in the rump because they're not getting the great help you're celebrating. >> it's all an old boys network or boys club or girls

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club and the ordinary guy who just lost his boat or house on staten island cannot do anything for a top level bureaucrat, but another top level bureaucrat can. and i completely agree there's just a fundamental mismatch between a bureaucracy and a natural disaster. but i think maybe charlie and gerri give too much credit to state and local agencies and they're not supermen and superwomen either. i don't know what the solution is. >> and wouldn't you say-- >> but, obviously, obviouy, plugging in giant cashes-- >> i would trust chris christie over these clowns. >> or the local or county sheriff. >> and some federal control an oversight from the state, but let the states handle it, chris christie is much more adept at handling the problem than anybody in washington. >> so the jury is still out. and i'm saying this, this is a

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point i want to raiseith you, adam lashinsky, the knee jerk response, fema is doing a great job, how do you know? how do you know? i just find it offensive when officials who are supposed to be providing help so sure early on that they are. and that is, as these others were pointing out, you could go do aerial shots over staten island at some points looks like mogadishu. and the fact of the matter is, quite rightly we're all over administration officials when it looked like the response to katrina was delayed. and i don't believe we applied the same litmus test this time around, but it is what it . they have a test the responsiveness of agencies and not reward them with more money, before we know how successful. at this point i would say not suck'sful at all. >> hold on, i almost completely agree with you, neil. where i will give the elected officials the benefit of the doubt, they want to try to be

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hopeful, right? they want to try to give people something good about, thank you for the good stuff you are doing. >> you're saying things are ok, you're not giving them hope, air lying to them. >> that's not true because-- >> you're compounding the problem. janet napolitano swept in there like me at a deli sale and then got out of there all of a sudden bragging about help and two days later the sfit facilities are shutting down flew a storm and fema comes through a storm. >> by the way, it's our job to criticize fema and we're doing exactly that. the statistics and the structural problems that gerri talks about are exactly right. these are problems and they should be fixed. but i agree with ben that, you can't make the assumption that the local officials will do any better after job. >> yes, you can. >> are you serious? >> no uyou can't. >> neil: bring in charles

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payne. >> of course you can. >> you know, i can't believe what adam is saying, that somebody in a faceless building in downtown washington d.c. knows new jersey better than the people of new jersey. wait for them to say this neighborhood is bad, this neighborhood is good, this neighborhood is bad, this is good. people from jersey can drive around there with their eyes blind folded and the pete of staten island. new jersey spends over $so,00 per capita to d.c. and then genuflect and beg to get it back and pull up the pompons when they get it back. to neil's point. victory laps 20 minutes into this thing, atrocious, a far as by the media, by politicians and fema had over 100 hours to get their act together and after katrina, wouldn't think it. >> it was a poorly covered story. >> very. >> and with the presidential

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election-- but people in staten island were so devastated, schools that were morgues, and they still wanted to do the-- bloomberg until the end still wanted to do-- so katrina like, people were using axes had break through the roofs to get rescue $by helicopter and at the center of this is fema, and no better-- >> maybe two strikes are out. we had katrina and know that the federal response was lacking and they weren't on the ground and maybe this, maybe it's time to rethink this. i'm not saying blow off fema, but make it much more localized or a state-wide basis. you want to wait for the next one. >> here is suggesting, charlie. >> how do you know which state to give it to. you've got 100 hours advanced notice how do you know where to give the money to-- >> and guys, i don't want to get caught on wonkery here, i've discovered this this, the

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governor to have it nationallize $. governor cuomo and governor christie, feel it's too big. and to that point the local guys cannot take over until th cede that control. >> i've covered state and local government early in my career, cuomo knew what was going on. >> and throwing the utilities under the bus. >> that's fine, but i saying in terms of what's going on on the ground, governors are briefed like every minute when something like this happens. >> well, i tell you this, and john kennedy was right on this, success has many authors, failures is an orfist, and the longer this drags on and proves a failure these guys are going to be pointing fingers faster than constituents are raising fingers at them. we'll see. the election is over, only now everybody is talking about the fiscal cliff. it's 51 days away.

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does anyone remember we were on it fro day one? contrary to all of this nstop coverage of everything november 6th is something that's going to four

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ambassador. much more on that. i'm jamie colby, back to cavuto on business here on fox, the most powerful name in news. >> neil: forget about blaming the fat cats, you, washington, fix the fiscal mess or there

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goes the country. and what happens at the end of the year when all of the issues sort of backup at the same time. i could go on and on and on and they back up like planes going back to laguardia. at the same time, the fact of the matter is, right now, we face this. unless this is fixed and soon and republicans get an idea that you can't touch defense and democrats get off the idea you can't even consider reading in the the reiningn the growthen entitlements, senator, listen, we're going to go into an abyss, you know it, i know it, right? >> all right, i tried to save the nation here besides reading the prompter, i'm only one n. and we've got 51 days until this financial armageddon. all the automatic spending cuts to kick in and the tax rates. you've heard a million times and seems like you're hearing a lot. but we're fox and fox business reminding you of the day of

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reckoning ahead of a lot of folks. charles payne, time's awasting. >> time's awasting. this is like a greek tragedy, i don't see how the ghost are going to save the day. washington post election, i don't thk that either party has a real mandate per se overall you would think the overall mandate would be to save this country. neil, you've been on top of this. i have a feeling we' go into that january 1st with no deal and maybe the markets crashing, maybe people in the street before they cobble together something akin to kicking it down the road again. they gave themselves a ticking time bomb and now they look like inspector clouseau trying to take it apart. >> neil: ben stein? >> other than raising taxes, it doesn't terrify me to see the taxes going up on the screen, what terrifies me cutting defense. i'd much rather see the taxes

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go up than cutting defense. and president obama gave a speech, my way or the highway. >> he said exactly the opposite, i mean,, i'm listening to the two of you, i've never been more hopeful about this problem getting resolved. john boehner made conciliatory comments last week and the president made conciliatory-- >> i think ben was saying on the tax issues raising on the rich, debate how much he's going to raise that. he said he wouldn't bend. >> go ahead. >> but that's not the only issue and that's not the only way to solve the problem. so, they will come together and have the solution in the next few weeks. >> boy, i'm glad somebody's optimistic about this, i'm not sure i am. >> i am. >> what i hear people-- >> what do you fear happen? >> there's an unholy alliance of the left saying let's go over the fiscal cliff and libertarians saying let's go over the fiscal cliff. >> neil: and you pick up the pieces under the new year that

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you want, is that it? >> ihink that's pretty much what people think, but the reality is, we'll lose 2 million jobs at a time we can little afford it. the economy will go into recession if it's not already there. and that's a cost we can't afford it pay. >> neil: but you could make a political argument. i don't want to be so cynical. you could make a political argument that you do that in the very beginning. >> it's a political argument, republicans say let it go and obama won it, bought it. >> give him the tax hike. >> let him do it. >> neil: they've got to get something in return. >> let it happen and obama's coming back and a lot of people think he's going to do this i'll let it happen, quick dirty big time dirty recession first year in office and then the deficit-- >> and then adam, i'll point out that the president obama's people are reaching out to people in the business community, on wall street and staying that you know, they're

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willing to compromise and that they are serious about dealing with the deficit. this is what they're-- >> and i agree with that, charles payne, not just because of these states passed the marijuana referendum so it's not just me suiting up. i do, i do believe there is a greater good that both sides are pursuing. i know i sound a little naive, but i see it in the demeanor that john boehner is trying to take, the approach the president is trying to talk and it could easily shatter and agree with what my guests have said here, but i like to think that one way out of this is for both sides to agree, maybe the republicans to a little bit after t tax increase, maybe not as much for the upper income. something that could be delayed anybody, i see on the part of the president-- just give me-- the other issue is democrats hold open the possibility of not equating reining in entitlement growth with throwing granny off the cliff? >> i don't dagree with you, but i think and what we've seen the tax hikes come today, but the entitlement fixes come

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ten or 20 years later and i don't think any g.o.p. members are going to go for that this time around. they've tried it before. >> neil: obviously you're not hopeful, not hopeful at all. (laughter) >> just you and me, neil. >> neil: oh, my gosh. i've got to rethink that. i must rethink during the break. did new jersey approve any narn marijuana? president obama isn't going away in the next four years and the health care is not going anywhere either. is the government getting ready to bail on the bailout of general momomomomo

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[hip-hop music] ♪ - ♪ what's wrong with the world, mama ♪ ♪ people livin' like they ain't got no mamas ♪ ♪ i think the whole world's addicted to the drama ♪ ♪ only attracted to the things that'll bring the trauma ♪ ♪ where is the love - ma'am. - [gasps] - you forgot your purse. - oh.

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thank you. thank you very much. >> i always wonder when you see that floating around. i digress, i've not slept this week. general motors is driving in a big ole pile of crash. a line of credit this week, you try applying for that. and fueling speculation maybe the government is getting ready to you dump its gm shares and dump a huge loss and taxpayers. gm shares currently trading around $25. and the sale needs to be $53 for u to break even. then you say that gm should take that lin of credit and help pay back taxpayers, something like this. >> gm wouldn't exist or not be here at least in the present form except for taxpayers, why shouldn't we get paid back? we're lendersnd should get

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paid back first, and paid back before everybody else. >> neil: charles payne? >> you know, i agree with ben. the bottom line, they are reconvinced the american public that the bailout worked, but people should get something to show for it. we haven't gotten anything. >> adam. >> i totally disagree. we've got a very good return on the investment in form of the jobs that gm and customers have right now. and it's been a good investment, if not a good financial investment. >> neil: gasperino. >> i think the lousy financial investment, but that's not why we bailed them out. we bailed them out to allegedly get jobs. >> no more votes, that's why he bailed them out. bailed them out, let's face it and be realistic here. at the end of the day it was a political calculation. >> neil: it's a sell on a loss, you agree with that, and that it doesn't matter. it's a political thing and won the election based-- >> it matters, i don't have my money back yet. i don't know about other taxpayers, but we're all a ttle angry.

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>> neil: and making a political statement. >> what makes you think you're going to get your money back. what did you say $53. >> neil: what it would take to make it even. >> what makes you think it's ever going there? >> would you bet on it, why they failed once. and chances of failing twice. >> pretty good. >> neil: i want to thank charlie and thank charlie gasperino and gerry. comes on the sw now and then and thinks afterward, why did i do this? up next, our gunning is already thinking about who is going to win in 2016. can you believe these guys? we're not talking to them about the presidential

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>> stox on a winning money campaign by the next time we vote for president. . >> and the tock is way over sold . >> adam, what do you make of that? >> i like it it doesn't have the razzle dazzle but it is expensive . you know how i feel about expensive stocks. >> what are you buying. cxx. this is inexpensive with a modestividend that sticks around. >> chelsea sysm is always a great company and i like ewc it is it a canadian fund and incredibly wll run cou